Happy National Poetry Month--We Need Your Support More Than Ever Before by Unsolicited Press Read on Substack
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Stephen King, and I would make blood pudding. Just kidding! During a two-week trip to England, that was the only thing I tried that I didn’t like. For Stephen King I would make Puttanesca, Italian style spaghetti that's fast and easy (so there’s time to discuss killing my darlings with no remorse) made with anchovies, garlic, and mixed olives, served with a salad of mixed greens tossed with a date vinaigrette and a robust burgundy. For dessert we would have Galette Au Chocolat. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Three things: rejection, critical reviews, and having to read in front of people. The only way to combat rejection is to plow ahead– “Drive your plow over the bones of the dead” to quote the suspense thriller by Olga Tokarczuk. I’m not sure how to combat fear of public speaking, but with my upcoming book signings, I’m going with wine and dark chocolate. As for the fear of critics and bad reviews? To quote C.N. Bovee, “There is probably no hell for authors in the next world—they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this one.” We all get bad reviews, there’s no pleasing everyone if you are to write anything of value, so I remind myself, writers have the last word. As Tennessee Williams more eloquently said: “The best thing you can do about critics is never say a word. In the end you have the last say, and they know it.” Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? This is a great question. After giving it some thought, I’d have to say Alessandro in Ramona--stoic, handsome, and tender yet brave-- the novel by Helen Hunt Jackson to protest the mistreatment of Native Americans. This tragic tale is still the only novel that made me weep. What books are on your nightstand? Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, Eastbound, an intriguing novella by Maylis de Kerangal, and Wager by David Grann. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The em dash. Because it interrupts politely yet firmly and demands the writer pay attention to what is “in between”. It’s better than sluggish semicolons and nondescript parenthesis. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I read everything I was supposed to and some I wasn’t supposed to. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Absolutely energizes. When I’m deep in the throes of my character’s lives, I’m more alive than when in my own middling one, and as a consequence, serves to make me a happier--more interesting?-- person. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Too much advice. Too many writing workshops, trying to follow the current rage or mirror the writings of a favorite author. Wrong wrong wrong! Find your own voice, let yourself fall into the “zone” and once you’re there, don’t stop. Never stop until you know what’s going to happen next. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Sure they could write about a sociopath. Seriously, it would be hard to write point-of-view with agency if you don’t feel emotion strongly. Can one train themself to feel emotion strongly? Put themself in another’s shoes with honesty and empathy? Isn’t that what writers have to do? I see I’ve answered a question with a question. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Creative writing teacher and poet, Cathryn Essinger, because she encouraged me to write a short story and then to keep going until it snowballed into a novel which birthed another, and then another. Also, fellow author, MJ Werthman White who I’ve recently become acquainted with through mutual friend, Essinger. MJ has generously shared her marketing tips with me for that which none of us wants to do, but must. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my daughter, Melissa, my most faithful reader and editor. She makes me “kill my darlings” with ruthless efficacy, and would give Stephen King a run for his money. A writer from the third grade, Melissa has more ideas for novels and works in progress than I have teeth. And I have all of them. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When the teacher in our one-room schoolhouse read aloud from Island Of The Blue Dolphins. It was the only time that even the boys were quiet. For myself, as a young girl in an isolated rural community where the highlight of the school year was the arrival of the bookmobile, the story of this young girl’s survival when stranded on an island all alone was captivating. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Carson McCullers “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”. "We are all broken, that's how the light gets in." What stood out for me and still remains in my heart is how, at the end of the novel, the young girl, Mick, with a passion for music, has to give up her dream of getting a piano and taking music lessons to go to work full time at a soul-sucking job to help support her family. It’s sad because she just gives in. Loses her spunk. The universal message-- creative enterprise rarely supports the artist, so it is difficult to follow your dream, even if you live frugally. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? An owl. Because their voice is unique and haunting, and they fly by night and roost in warm haymows by day, and everyone loves them. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I owe them a thank-you for letting me eavesdrop and for doing stupid shit I can fictionalize. Seriously, for the most part, my characters and their flaws are products of my imagination, and making up shit is what I do best. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Four. A Vietnam Era love story I’ve worked on for so long it has become Historical, a contemporary novel of strife in farm country. “Anyone can be good in the country; there are no temptations there,” which is a loose sequel to the Vietnam one, an unfinished memoir, and a work-in-progress involving the catastrophic die-off of amphibians, the biologist who lives in the woods to figure out why, and a reporter who only wants a story but instead gets a second chance at love. What does literary success look like to you? Having an ISBN number. An agent at a writer’s conference I once attended told the participants that manuscripts are not books. “Your manuscript is not a book,” she said adamantly, “until you have an ISBN number.” That stuck with me, so when I first saw that number appended to the publisher’s marketing data I knew I had a book. It was a huge Ah-ha moment, a badge of authenticity. What’s the best way to market your books? I believe word of mouth is still the best marketing tool. But it takes a while to get beyond your immediate circle of family and friends. In the interim, Amazon can’t be ignored for its breadth and reach, but Amazon clashes with the core values of independent booksellers who support authors, readers, and their communities. They, along with libraries, are the champions of authors. From my small local Brown City Library to the New York Public Library, libraries have but one mission– to make as many books available to as many people as possible. They are a refuge for inquisitive minds and soaring imaginations. Many libraries also have local author collections. So, short answer--libraries and indie bookshops. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I don’t find it hard at all. Men are easy to read. I love them, I watch them and listen to them, and I’m intuitive enough to see through them to know what they really want. What did you edit out of this book? A sex scene. Because I think one good sex scene is all you need unless you are a romance author and then you need one in every chapter. If you didn’t write, what would you do? I would work on a tree farm or in a vineyard and stomp grapes or pick apples, press cider, and dabble with fermentation. APRIL 2, 2024 -- PORTLAND, OREGON: After her mother is killed in a rogue Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through the pitfalls of young adulthood.
Hundreds of miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are forced off their land by multinational energy companies and flawed treaties. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie’s aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program. Stefan, whose own father died in prison while on a hunger strike, promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his story, has grown sympathetic to his cause and complicit in his pushback against prejudiced accusations. Their mutual attraction and struggle for equilibrium is stymied when Stefan’s older brother, Joachim, who stayed behind, becomes embroiled in the resistance, and Stefan is compelled to return to Canada. Sadie, concerned for his safety, impulsively follows on a trajectory doomed by cultural misunderstanding and oncoming winter. Let Evening Come is the love story between the son of an Indigenous family displaced from their ancestral home on the Tar Sands of Canada and a motherless farm girl from Michigan. Together they combat suspicion and bigotry on both sides of the border and the cultural differences that separate them. Praise for LET EVENING COME Author Yvonne Osborne has crafted a truly emotionally resonant novel that delves into themes of loss, displacement, and cultural conflict. The up-close and detailed portrayal of Sadie and Stefan's budding romance against the backdrop of their respective struggles was both captivating and poignant. I loved the way their unique dialogue was presented and readers will feel the dynamics between the lines. The exploration of cultural misunderstanding and the challenges faced by Indigenous communities was an incredibly poignant touch that is really focused on and never used as a gimmick, fostering genuine empathy and understanding. As the characters navigated adversity and sought connection across borders, I found myself deeply invested in their journey, rooting for their love to transcend the obstacles in their path. Overall, Let Evening Come is a recommended read and a compelling tale of love, resilience, and the human capacity to overcome adversity amidst cultural divides. --Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite About the Author Yvonne Osborne is a 5th generation Michigander who grew up on the family farm under the tutelage of a grandmother who loved Shakespeare before Shakespeare was cool. After college and a stint in the Buckeye State, she and her husband moved back to the farm founded by her great-great-grandfather. Her poetry and short stories can be found in The Slippery Elm Literary Journal, Flapper Press, Third Coast Review, Full of Crow, Midwest Review, Great Lakes Review, and in various anthologies. Let Evening Come is her debut novel. For more, visit her at yvonneosborne.com ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Lara Lillibridge, Douglas Cole, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Tara Stillions Whitehead, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. LET EVENING COME is available on April 2, 2024, as a paperback (386p.; 978-1-963115-52-9) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Unsolicited Press Releases Lara Lillibridge's Essay Collection, "The Truth About Unringing Phones"3/5/2024
MARCH 5, 2024 -- PORTLAND, OREGON: The Truth About Unringing Phones: Essays on Yearning is an exploration of responsibility and culpability told in experimental and fragmented essays.
When she was four years old Lara’s father moved from Rochester, New York, to Anchorage, Alaska, a distance of over 4,000 miles. She spent her childhood chasing after him, flying a quarter of the way around the world to tug at the hem of his jacket. When he did turn his attention on her, sometimes his gaze lingered inappropriately. Clothing and personal boundaries were optional in his overtly sexual household. As Lillibridge aged, her adoration of her father and longing for him was layered over with anger, revulsion, and later pity like a hand-dipped candle, these new emotions fusing with, but not replacing the always present yearning. Now that her father is in his eighties, dementia comes and goes and stays longer each time. He is a lonely old man and while society says Lillibridge should be a dutiful daughter, the only way she has survived her father was to cut herself off from him, having only the most superficial of interactions. In this collection she grapples with responsibility versus self-preservation. Praise for The Truth About Unringing Phones "The Truth About Unringing Phones is an exploration of yearning, of guilt, of unfulfilled wishes, of regrets, past and present, but more than these things, it is a quiet prayer for peace in a tumultuous relationship between a daughter and her father. The main characters are complex, contradictory, and vulnerable in their alone-ness and connections to themselves and each other. Lillibridge has woven a deeply moving assemblage of memories, each shining light into the quagmire of family." –Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Song Poet: a Memoir of my Father "The Truth About Unringing Phones is heartbreakingly beautiful. Full of both darkness and light, Lara Lillibridge honors both the full weight of her love for her father and the complicated, and often painful, foundation on which that love, and all the memories surrounding it, was built."–Athena Dixon, author of The Loneliness Files "What a beautiful thing to take the ugly messiness of family and make of it a search for solace. Much like the way memory works, these fragments and pieces and shells trace the history and frustration of an estranged father-daughter relationship. They tell a story of longing, and loss. Of where love goes when it gets lost itself. They tell a story as old as time, or the day the first daughter was born and the first father came into being." –Paul Creshaw, author of Melt with Me: Coming of Age and Other ’80s Perils and Pushcart Prize Recipient 2017. "With admirable courage and raw candor, Lara Lillibridge chronicles the wrenching paradoxes that shaped her complicated relationship with her father in this stunning collection. The story's unconventional narrative structure that pairs long-form essay with searing, fragmented vignettes which mirror Lillibridge's journey to piece together the problematic dimensions of her absentee and neglectful father and to understand her place as daughter within that landscape. The Truth About Unringing Phones exemplifies how, amidst the heartbreak, threads of compassion, love, and grace can still be woven into the fabric of our most difficult relationships." —Melanie Brooks, author of A Hard Silence and Writing Hard Stories About the Author Lara Lillibridge (she/they) is the author of Mama, Mama, Only Mama (Skyhorse, 2019), Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home (Skyhorse, 2018), and co-editor of the anthology, Feminine Rising: Voices of Power and Invisibility (Cynren Press, 2019). Lillibridge is the Interviews Editor at Hippocampus Magazine and currently serves as a mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer program. Lara graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. In 2016 she won Slippery Elm Literary Journal’s Prose Contest, and The American Literary Review's Contest in Nonfiction. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Douglas Cole, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Tara Stillions Whitehead, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. The Truth About Unringing Phones is available on March 5, 2024, as a paperback (242p.; 9781956692778) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. You all know we have been ramping up what's coming next year, and now we can officially say we have a roster.
We will be unveiling more about this in our March Substack newsletter, so don't forget to subscribe. A meditation in a rush, kiss & release is driven by the intense voice of an observant, insistent & emotional “I.” He’s an urban gay man who admits he’s here with a date, but you never know how the night will end. He has several loves, at least a few fuckboys, and many questions: most spells are made with words & broken by a kiss, why not the other way around? what is more intimate than a whisper? how long will yr wife be gone? Have you ever noticed it? asks “Love Is Finished Again,” a poem cycle revealed in seven movements. The sequence muses on how we end up in the same place over & over in sex & love & everything. The only real change is through decay that makes ruins, noseless busts, caves of Pompeii, brothel rooms. Even language & communication decay, as a number of mashup and collaborative poems explore. Are you ready for the beats? This book is a party and a romance. It’s a lucid dream. This poetry accuses, brags, confesses, obsesses, panics & promises. It discos, raves & swings. It falls in love during a hookup but gets bored at a four-way. It woos the Zodiac; tries to get its virginity back; invents sex as a religion, mythologizes masculinity & succumbs to its devils; kills a snake to resurrect a lover; gives a blowjob at a dirty book store; goes to see bad performance art; looks for love & finds it everywhere/wherever. PRAISE FOR KISS & RELEASE "God, Anthony DiPietro’s poetry is good. I’m supposed to write a blurb, and there’s a formula for that, but I’m sitting here reading, and I’m electric about what I’m reading. Not intrigued in that academic kind of way, though these poems are certainly well-crafted. I’m excited in a way that makes me remember what it was like when I’d find a book as a teenager, something dangerous and contraband, something so much a lifeline, and it would speak to all those hidden parts of me with a rush of sexuality and exposure, a mirror and a flashlight. But I’m not a teenager anymore. I’m a grown man who has somehow survived and touched and loved and screwed, and these poems uncorked the bottle and let all those rowdy spirits out. This book - these poems - these feelings - are why I love poetry, why I need poetry, why poetry saved my life - and why it’s still reminding me how to be alive. Forget the formula. This is me, a reader, praising the poetry gods and angels that this book exists, for me, and for everyone who came before and will come after." --Bryan Borland, founding publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press "Anthony DiPietro’s kiss & release is a pleasurable, lovable book about love and pleasure. DiPietro’s approach to these poems, even to poems of grief and heartache, is endlessly playful, darkhearted, lighthearted, and resplendent with anti-heroic wit and sex that charms and stings. The delight of this text does not diminish its formal and literary acumen. There are references to Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, Pasolini, Plath, and Marie Howe, all ribboned-through with music—pop, classical, hip hop, country—and although DiPietro makes ample use of the prose poem, there is also a sestina, a villanelle, a pop cento, an abecedarian, a sequence, and a poem arrived at via predictive text. I tell you, this collection is a romp and a grand buffet, a paean to the urban masq, the fuckboy, and hot, thriving, fleeting love." --Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anthony DiPietro is a gay sex poet and arts administrator originally from Providence, Rhode Island. He has lived throughout New England and in California, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. A graduate of Brown University with honors in creative writing, he also earned a creative writing MFA at Stony Brook University. Now deputy director of Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, he resides in Worcester, MA. He composed his 2021 chapbook And Walk Through (Seven Kitchens Press) on a typewriter during the pandemic lockdowns. kiss & release is his debut collection. His writing and readings are featured on his website, www.AnthonyWriter.com. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Douglas Cole, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Tara Stillions Whitehead, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. KISS & RELEASE is available on February 13, 2024, as a paperback (128.; 978-1-956692-87-7) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Liz Kellebrew’s first full-length poetry collection is Water Signs. The River People and Cloistered are forthcoming from Unsolicited Press. Her MFA in creative writing is from Goddard College. Liz’s essays, poems, and short stories have been published in About Place, Catamaran, and The Conium Review. She received the Miracle Monocle Award for Innovative Writing and was a finalist for the Calvino Prize. Liz is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. Visit https://lizkellebrew.com/. Jerrod E. Bohn is the author of three full-length poetry books, Animal Histories (2017), Pulp: A Manifesto (2018), and Ventric(L)e (2023), from Unsolicited Press. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared most recently in Redivider and Matter Monthly. He is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program. Jerrod is an English professor at Edmonds College and freelance music writer for Bandbox Vinyl Record Club. He curates Gravel, an on-again, off-again brewery reading series. JANUARY 2, 2024-- We're proud to present UNSETTLED by Laurie Woodford. At the age of forty-nine, driven by an urgent restlessness, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and relocates to Asia. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English overseas, evolves into a nomadic adventure as Laurie works and volunteers in South Korea, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, and Mexico. After four years of traveling, Laurie’s return “home” to the U.S. becomes an unexpected adventure of its own when she ends up in Arkansas and meets Bruce, a bird-loving, bearded Quaker, who challenges her to reconcile her life of fierce independence with her longing to feel settled and loved.
About the Author Laurie Woodford is a memoirist, fiction writer, and essayist whose work has appeared in The Antioch Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Minnesota Review, Little Patuxent Review and Catamaran. For over twenty years, she taught English to college students in the U.S., South Korea, and China. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. Originally from upstate New York, Laurie now lives with her amazing husband, Bruce, and wonder dog, Journey, in the outskirts of Austin, Texas. For more, visit her at www.lauriewoodford.com. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. UNSETTLED is available on January 2, 2024 as a paperback and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.
We are starting a new reading, and good gracious, technology can be a pest. For our first livestream attempt, we failed to stream it. BUT, you can still watch it!
Our newest series, LITERARY NIGHTS WITH UNSOLICITED PRESS is hosted by the charismatic Rosalia Scalia. On most Wednesdays, Scalia will be hosting 1-4 authors reading from their books. These readings will be livestreamed on YouTube and some social media outlets (if we can ever figure it out!). On December 13th, 2023, Scalia hosted a reading with Katie Holtmeyer and Laurie Woodford. Katie Holtmeyer lives, writes, and teaches in Missouri. She is a pushcart-nominated author, and her poetry has appeared in Vast Chasm, Stanchion Zine, and The Shore, among others. You can find more of her work at katieholtmeyer.com. Her poetry collection, She Asked Me Where, explores the various ways in which the demons, darkness, and pain, both of ourselves and of others, manifest in our lives. It captures the pull of several spectrums innate to the human experience: pain and triumph, fear and power, longing and overcoming, the perfect and the flawed. This collection approaches the liminal spaces of these binaries through recurring themes that are connected in their struggle for control and understanding over what cannot be controlled or understood. Laurie Woodford is a memoirist, fiction writer, and essayist whose work has appeared in The Antioch Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Minnesota Review, Little Patuxent Review and Catamaran. For over twenty years, she taught English to college students in the U.S., South Korea, and China. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. Originally from upstate New York, Laurie now lives with her amazing husband, Bruce, and wonder dog, Journey, in the outskirts of Austin, Texas. For more, visit her at www.lauriewoodford.com. Her memoir, UNSETTLED, is a stunning account of travel and learning about the human condition. At the age of forty-nine, driven by an urgent restlessness, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and relocates to Asia. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English overseas, evolves into a nomadic adventure as Laurie works and volunteers in South Korea, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, and Mexico. After four years of traveling, Laurie’s return “home” to the U.S. becomes an unexpected adventure of its own when she ends up in Arkansas and meets Bruce, a bird-loving, bearded Quaker, who challenges her to reconcile her life of fierce independence with her longing to feel settled and loved. Laurie Woodford is a memoirist, fiction writer, and essayist whose work has appeared in The Antioch Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Minnesota Review, Little Patuxent Review and Catamaran. For over twenty years, she taught English to college students in the U.S., South Korea, and China. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. Originally from upstate New York, Laurie now lives with her amazing husband, Bruce, and wonder dog, Journey, in the outskirts of Austin, Texas. For more, visit her at www.lauriewoodford.com. As writers and publishers there are times when we opt to include words, sometimes those that are taboo, in our stories because we believe they fit the character or the plot or the era. BUT, sometimes, long after printing and hours of pondering, we decide that maybe those stories would be better off without those words because they are harmful to others. Recently, John and Summer worked together to eliminate two slurs that were originally published in WHO KILLED BUSTER SPARKLE?. They simply didn’t feel right. We’d like to use this opportunity to start a discussion about using words, particularly those that harm certain groups of people. To start, John W. Bateman and Unsolicited Press have included the following foreword in the book, which is currently being reprinted. New copies, without the slurs, will be available on January 1, 2024. Please take a moment to read it: “Specificity gives a reason for everything.” It’s difficult to step up and say Hey, I think we made a mistake. But what’s important, is taking the steps to rectify those mistakes. We hope that we can continue this conversation with readers, writers, and others in the publishing industry.
To demonstrate our sincere goal to champion the underserved, we will be donating 25% of the profit from all future sales of WHO KILLED BUSTER SPARKLE? to Black and Pink. Black & Pink National is a prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support, and organizing. DECEMBER 12, 2023 -- What if we "Fast forward a hundred years?" as the first poem in The Book of Leavening asks. Would our "voices turn votives: every hour/ candling from windowsill to sea"? Would we "find fortune in last casts of light?" These poems are deeply concerned with imagining a future far beyond our current lives.
Through free verse poems mixed with ghazals, the poet considers not simply the joys and storms of our current lives, but also how those joys and storms will ripple into future generations. Wrestling with questions of how the personal affects the universal, these poems interrogate milestones and rituals--marriage, childbirth, the loss of friends and relatives--to explore how these common passages feel from the inside. They also question the vows we make, personally, and as a civilization: "What can I do to love/ the way I promised?" What happens, when our world seems to make it ever more difficult to define and live out one's values? What does one hear, when one listens deeply to what the landscape tells us? This narrator finds hope and even salvation in that deep listening; as she states, "I listen at times to backs of bread,/ backs of books, fronts of hands. Listen/ so long, I question if anyone courts/ noise anymore." There may be no simple solutions--but, through the act of paying close attention, and directing compassion at what she sees, the poet shines a light on a hopeful path forward. About the Author Rebecca Givens Rolland is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Author of The Art of Talking with Children (HarperOne, 2022), she has an MFA in fiction from Lesley University and teaches at Harvard. She is the winner of the May Sarton New Hampshire First Book Prize for her first poetry collection, The Wreck of Birds. She has published two chapbooks with dancing girl press. Her poems appear in the Kenyon Review, Cincinnati Review, Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, and Poets.org. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. THE BOOK OF LEAVENING is available on December 12, 2023 as a paperback and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Lisa Mottolo’s How to Monetize Despair transforms devastation into clean-burning fuel, complicating and ultimately exploding the concept of self-help. These poems are dark, playful, and surreal, examining the threshold between life and death, juxtaposing flourishes of nature with vulnerabilities of the body and things we leave behind. In “Destroying a Flower” the speaker observes, “It’s funny, we see fleetingness as sad / as though it would be good if everything lasted forever, // giving us enough time to get sick of everything.” How to Monetize Despair is a stunning debut from a poet with remarkable range. ---Mary Biddinger, author of Department of Elegy “Here is a poet sparring in the darkness--bloodied fists swinging through empty midnight air and somehow landing every punch in every poem.” ---Dan Sicoli, Co-editor of Slipstream and author of Pagan Supper “Mottolo writes for us the self-help book we most deserve: it doesn’t make us better than, but reveals who we are… “A ruby-throated hummingbird came up the window / and I missed it because I was reading a poem about God.” Even our effort to be good divorces us from the good. And yet—and yet these poems are so profoundly tender in their unsparing insights that the book reads not as an indictment, but a strange book of innocence.” ---Dan Beachy-Quick, Poet, Writer, and Critic How to Monetize Despair is a captivating exploration of a wide range of subjects and ideas, from traumatic loss and the sorrows of human relationships to the natural but absurd world of neurotic caterpillars and philosophical cockroaches. With a unique blend of imagery, self-help inspired titles, and Mottolo’s peculiar brand of humor, this collection takes readers on a one-of-a-kind journey through human experience. This collection is a must-read for anyone seeking to explore the complexities of trauma and struggle, and to encounter a sea creature or butterfly along the way. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lisa Mottolo is a poet and essayist who splits time between Austin, Texas and Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica. She has attended writing programs at The University of California at Berkeley and Kenyon College, and is Assistant Editor at Atmosphere Press. Her work has appeared in Penn Review, DIAGRAM, and The Laurel Review, and How to Monetize Despair is her first book. A native of Schenectady, New York, she now lives with her husband, two children, one dog, one rabbit, and, of course, four birds. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. HOW TO MONETIZE DESPAIR is available on December 12, 2023 as a paperback and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.
Goodness, do we love a great book deal. We have tons of books that are discounted are a variety of retailers. Currently, these books are on sale on our Bookshop.org bookshop page. Check them out.
Find More Books You Love"Patricia O’Donnell writes unfailingly about the rawness of human relationships with this investigation of contradiction, grief, hope, and memory. With her sparse prose, stark honesty, and grit, O’Donnell lays bare the complexities of love, infidelity, and friendship. A Symmetry of Husbands is a poetic unfolding of love in all its expressions."
Amy Neswald (her collection I Know You Love Me, Too is out from New American Press) Set in the early days of the Trump presidency, A Symmetry of Husbands probes the inner workings of marriage and long friendship. As she grieves the death of her friend, Megan, Abigail struggles with complicated feelings of lingering desire for Megan’s husband, and guilt over their affair. Abigail also entertains a growing suspicion of the circumstances of Megan’s death, and her own possible complicity. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patricia O’Donnell lives in the small town of Wilton in central Maine. She has ties to Boston’s North Shore, where the novel is set. She is Professor Emerita in Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Her books include a prize-winning collection of short fiction, a memoir, and two previous novels. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. A SYMMETRY OF HUSBANDS is available on November 7, 2023 as a paperback (306 p.; $18.95; 978-1-956692-83-9) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. We will be at the Portland Book Festival on the evening of 11/3 and all day 11/4. We are table #69 — if you are in the city, please consider swinging by and saying hi to our staff! Our publisher, a few interns, and many of our PNW authors will be at the table. For those who can stop by in person, we will be giving you a free book with every purchase. We are largely representing our PNW authors during the festival, with a few new releases on the table. Last year we ran out of books so we are prepared to place online orders that can be shipped directly to your house if that happens. Here are some of the books that we will have available at the table: We are also offering a range of book deals for those of you who cannot be at the festival. You can find out about those through our Substack newsletter. It's a free newsletter and takes two seconds to subscribe. By the end of the year, that will be our main form of communication (yes! we are retiring the blog). Not only that, but several authors will be waiting to sign books for you. On Friday evening, Eric Paul Shaffer and Amy Baskin will be at the table from 6pm-7PM.
For the all day event on Saturday, here is the author signing schedule:
In the Bodies is a collection of poetry for shapeshifting. The poems investigate possibilities of mutual transformation, as our relational encounters with others co-create meaning, poetry, environment, and even our bodies. What might we co-create when we press against the taught borders of body, of place, of time, of what is accepted as possible and holy? These poems press, inviting readers to get in the bodies of other creatures, people, and places—to taste what melts their tongues, feel their bone breaks, scry through their eyes, sense the world rotating through their dirt and updrafts, shift shape, and maybe sprout new growth together in shared gardens.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jericho M. Hockett's roots are in the Southwest Kansas farm, while she blooms in Topeka with her family. She is a poet, social psychologist, teacher, forever student, and dreamer, most whole in the green. Some of her poems appear in or are forthcoming from Drunk Monkeys, Earth’s Daughters, Yellow Arrow Journal, Coffin Bell, and Pilgrimage Magazine. Her chapbook “Rituals for Dissolution” is forthcoming (Eastern Iowa Review/Port Yonder Press). More works are always brewing. Instagram: @jerichomariette ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. IN THE BODIES is available on October 17, 2023 as a paperback (144.; 978-1-956692-76-1) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. October 10, 2023 -- We are announcing the immediate release of Suzanne S. Rancourt's latest collection. Riding atop grief’s didactic waves, Rancourt skillfully writes in a variety of poetic forms that support the intimate melding of shared experience as healer, elder, and human being. Prose, lyric, ballad, couplets, and haiku inspired – Rancourt continues to push the boundaries of trauma. Songs of Archilochus is an odyssey of soul recovery over great distances, time, and place: a migration from moral injury to a momentary place of peace. It takes courage to age with grace. It takes courage to sing the songs that we have been given - but sing we must for that is how the healing is carried – that is how the stories take shape – how they become a part of history whether personal, societal, global, or Universal. Songs of Archilochus reminds us that the vibration of human life knows no border, boundary, box or cage. Warrior. Poet. Lovers. Sing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Suzanne S. Rancourt – a poet / author / of Abenaki / Huron, Quebecois & Scottish descent – is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army. Her books include Songs of Archilochus (Unsolicited Press, 2023); Old Stones, New Roads (Main Street Rag, 2021); murmurs at the gate (Unsolicited Press, 2019), winner of the 2023 Poetry of Modern Conflict Award; Billboard in the Clouds (Curbstone Books, 2004), awarded the Native Writers First Book Award. Rancourt was the May 2022 / 2023 guest artist at University of Michigan's New England Literature Program. She has also been the featured writer for the Sundog Poetry Center's VT event honoring the People of the Dawnland: Voices of Today and Tomorrow. Her poetry, non-fiction, and fiction have appeared in a host of journals and magazines, including The Massachusetts Review, The Brooklyn Review, River Heron Review, Tupelo Press Native Voices Anthology, Bright Hill Press 25th Anniversary Anthology, Muddy River Poetry Review, Ginosko, Journal of Military Experience, and Callaloo. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. SONGS OF ARCHILOCHUS is available on October 10, 2023 as a paperback (110.; 978-1-956692-98-3) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. 34-year-old Timothy Dugan faces a growing list of problems. His girlfriend wants to have a baby, he hates his job, and his mother announces that she and his father, long divorced, plan to remarry. There’s also his growing dependence on alcohol. Just when things start to look up, in the form of a possible new business venture, someone from his past returns with a secret that could ruin everything, and Timothy slides into a slow-motion train wreck from which he might not recover. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anne Leigh Parrish lives in a forest in the South Sound Region of Washington State. She is the author of twelve books which include short stories, novels, and poems. She has recently ventured into the art of photography. Find her online at anneleighparrish.com. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. A SUMMER MORNING is available on October 3, 2023 as a paperback (298.; 978-1-956692-57-02) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Take the Lively Air is a powerful tale of overlapping lives, the intersection of past and present, and ghosts who reside all too easily in the hearts of the living. In the course of a single day, strangers become both friends and enemies. Mistakes made, lingering doubts, and relentless remorse weave through the narrative like a ragged strand of missed opportunities and chances. Set against the glorious backdrop of the New Jersey coast, one man confronts devastating loss by offering comfort to those he may have wronged in a minor traffic accident whose consequences are both unforeseen and deeply painful. Bennett gives us a fine novel that shows how compassion triumphs over rage, and kindness always saves the day. – Anne Leigh Parrish, author of an open door "Take the Lively Air is a thoughtful and realistic portrait of modern families. Bennett is unafraid to take on tough and touchy subjects with empathy and honesty. With prose as vibrant as its New Jersey beach setting, the simmering tension will have readers flipping pages. More than a family drama, it's an examination of the complexities of excavating buried grief and regret, and a map for how to move forward." – Meagan Lucas, author Songbirds and Stray Dogs, and Editor-in-Chief of Reckon Review. “Crafted with just the right details, understated humor, and empathy, Take the Lively Air is a simple yet startling novel. Out of a single incident—two headstrong men colliding their cars in a seaside New Jersey town—emerges a universe of multilayered characters and interconnected truths. Mr. Bennett reminds us that everybody has a story, and that some of those stories lead to healing.” – Jay Kristensen Jr In Take the Lively Air, a minor traffic collision escalates into a confrontation between two families haunted by their pasts and apprehensive of their futures. Rage and regret butt heads against the background of America’s toxic cultural climate. But saner voices discover that human frailties are best viewed through the microscope of compassion, and our common humanity must be acknowledged to make way for our futures. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mick Bennett is from Belmar, New Jersey. Bennett attended Gettysburg College, and after graduation in 1975, found a job at a high school 15 miles from Gettysburg where he taught for 33 years. Bennett is the author of four books: Missing You in Belmar NJ, Summer Mirrors, Boardwalk Man, and Beat the Blues. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. TAKE THE LIVELY AIR is available on September 26, 2023, as a paperback (322p.; 978-1-956692-66-2) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.
Cormorant is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it.
To support wildlife, we are donating the profits of this book to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elisa Carlsen (she/they) grew up in Humboldt County, Nevada. They are an outsider poet and artist whose work has appeared in SixFold, VoiceCatcher, Anti-Heroin Chic, Nevada Arts Council, Brushfire, and Oranges Journal. Elisa won the Lower Columbia Regional Poetry Contest and was a finalist for the Editor’s Prize at Harbor Review. Elisa is a poetry editor for New American Press. Cormorant (Unsolicited Press, 2023) is her first published poetry collection. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Douglas Cole, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Tara Stillions Whitehead, Darci Schummer, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. CORMORANT is available on September 19, 2023, as a paperback (48p.; 978-1-956692-67-9) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. “A novel filled with gallows humor that’s representative of great creativity, The Prumont Method examines the phenomenon of gun massacres with pathos and profundity.” --Foreword, starred review THE PRUMONT METHOD is a darkly funny story capturing the wild last gasp of a family in retrograde against the backdrop of gun violence run amok in America. Staring down the barrel of a crumbling career and imploding marriage, "math hobbyist" Roger Prumont, unwittingly creates a formula that might predict when and where the next mass shooting occurs. He hits the road (where he’s joined by his unimpressed daughter) to test whether the Method could actually save lives, except he might just be risking his own in the process. PRAISE FOR THE PRUMONT METHOD "This book is funny, sad, and weird in all the best ways. It's a unique take on our gun massacre culture—briskly paced and unflinchingly digging into big questions about heroism, helplessness, and holding it all together." - Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe “Is it harder to predict the future or understand the past? Roger Prumont is many things—a tortured husband, a loving father, a failed marketer, an amateur bartender, an unorthodox mathematician—and The Prumont Method is a sad, lovely portrait of his struggle to make it all make sense. Read this book for its sideways humor and straight-on truth-telling.” - Karl Iagnemma, author of On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction and The Expeditions "Trevor J. Houser has the rare ability to deliver what very few authors can: a wholly unique, almost magical brand of storytelling that’s the perfect blend of concision, humor, pathos, beauty, and utter irreverence. If Jenny Offill and Salinger had teamed up to write a novel about such a dark and rich premise, it would’ve been The Prumont Method." - Glenn Rockowitz, author of Rodeo in Joliet and Cotton Teeth “I’m not sure how Trevor Houser did it, but he found a way to talk about school shootings, failed marriages, abstract mathematicians, and middle-aged suicide in a way that is strangely heartwarming, relatable, and absolutely laugh-out-loud funny. The Prumont Method is buoyed by a meticulously crafted character and voice, and it unfolds in bite-sized sections of thoughts and musings that propel us toward a seat-clutching finale. I loved this book. And it has forever changed the way I will think about real estate agents named Kevin.” -Josh Denslow, author of Super Normal and Not Everyone is Special ABOUT THE AUTHOR Trevor J. Houser lives with his family in Seattle. He has published stories in Zyzzyva, Story Quarterly and The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review, among others. Three of his stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Douglas Cole, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Tara Stillions Whitehead, Darci Schummer, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. THE PRUMONT METHOD is available on August 15, 2023, as a paperback (240p.; 978-1-956692-49-5 and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Please contact Mindbuck Media to book the author. |
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